


Death is no Different from Life

by Armaria



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: M/M, Silly, Workaholicism, sap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:27:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28317489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Armaria/pseuds/Armaria
Summary: “If this is my life amongst the Chthonic gods, I want to go where you are in trouble, I want to do my part for the House! I want to live here with you!”
Relationships: Thanatos/Zagreus (Hades Video Game)
Kudos: 10
Collections: Hades Rural Dionysia Exchange





	Death is no Different from Life

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MsThunderFrost](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsThunderFrost/gifts).



> > θάνατος οὐδὲν διαφέρει τοῦ ζῆν
> 
> \--Thales of Miletus 

It was hard, having to depart.

“Work calls,” Thanatos declared at last, setting aside the _harpe_ he had been using for practice. Where it anywhere else in Tartarus he would be caught for dereliction of duty, but against the Prince of the Underworld, in the House of the lord Hades, it would overkill.

The young Prince himself pouted. “Aw, Than! Again?”

“Mortals don’t die on schedule, no matter what my sisters say,” dark and gloomy Death incarnate pointed out. “It is necessary.”

“I know, I just…” Zagreus screwed up his face. “Why can’t I come along? You get all the best weapons!”

“It’s just Harpe.” Thanatos set it away from Zagreus. “It’s the reason why Dusa is here, remember?”

“Er…” Within Zagreus’s eyes there warred the boyish desire for sharp objects against righteous anger for a new shade in the House. “But… Father actually lent it out… before.”

“Perseus is not a nice person, no matter what you’ve heard,” Thanatos rolled his eyes as he picked up the scythe as tall as he was, the eye set into its blade blinking slowly in its aspect. “See you.”

A small cry of surprise sounded. Thanatos did not look back; it was not the first time Zagreus tried to catch onto him through the ether, and it was unlikely to be the last time Megaera had to waylay him rushing to the surface to scourge a clinging Prince off of his cloak.

* * *

Thanatos had just barely finished the last stack of parchment-work before Zagreus found him at the administrative chamber.

“Hey Than-”

“For the last time, Zagreus, I am _busy_.”

“-do you want a recliner at the southwest balcony?” Zagreus finished, before he leant back on an Ionic column.

“Oh.” Thanatos sheepishly set down the stylus. “…certainly.”

“Noted, one space for Than on the southwest balcony when the House Contractor can get to it.” The Underworld’s prince started jotting on papyrus. “That would be at the end of forever, so glad we’re all immortal then!”

“Zagreus,” Thanatos began, “I apologise-”

“No, because Death Incarnate is so important that when a mortal king locks him away nobody _else_ can take over the work!” Zagreus snapped. “I’m sorry,” he said immediately after. “I just…”

“No, it’s alright, it’s just the work.”

“One in a few centuries of… oh, forever.” _Where I fail all the time_ , went the unspoken words. Zagreus stormed off in a huff then, leaving Thanatos to stare at his parchment-work.

Mere moments passed before a swoosh signalled the arrival of Nyx, here to give him a Look.

“You are not disappointed that you were trapped by a mortal,” she concluded. “Merely that Zagreus had heard of it.”

“Mother, I…” Thanatos looked back. “…it was supposed to be impossible.”

“And it has happened, and Lord Ares came and broke your chains. Yet the damage was done. The king of Ephyra labours in Tartarus now, but mortals… mortals may follow, especially the mad ones. And the young do not know better…”

“My child,” Nyx continued, “perhaps, you underestimate your prince.”

“…not my brother?” Thanatos glanced up, only to see his mother give a wry smile.

“Oh, my _child_.”

* * *

“I get that he’s busy,” Zagreus complained over the next bottle of nectar to his weapons instructor. “I get that mortals die, I really do. I just want to go with him, why can’t I?”

“My boy, you are talking on matters which are not so simple,” Achilles poured out the nectar. “The ways of the _Theoi Khthonioi_ are not known to mortals. Yet the matters of the heart… is it merely because you have been restricted to the House?”

“No, it’s… Than is always been on the surface, and he’s come back burnt by the light of Helios driving his chariot, but… at least he has _something_ to do.”

“Your schedule is packed too, my boy,” Achilles commented over the gyros. “For however time is divided, there is time for leisure too, as compared to Death’s constant rush to reap souls when their time is up. I daresay the recent spate in Ephyra was the longest time he has spent off-duty.”

“At least _something_ can tie him down,” Zagreus grumbled. “Every time I find him it’s barely a moment before ‘sorry Zagreus I have to go’ and then _woosh_!”

Their small and technically forbidden drinking party thus ended, and Zagreus walked back to his bedroom ― only to see Death’s pristine black cloak thrown over a chair, and Death himself by the Mirror of Night.

“Than?”

“Zagreus, I came to apologise.” Thanatos began. “I… I did not take my failure well, especially… since I thought your rebellion should not be encouraged. I-”

“Wait, what?” Zagreus quickly rubbed between his eyebrows. “Is this about today? Shouldn’t I be apologising for disparaging your job?”

“I… my job? I thought… I thought you would idolise Sisyphus for his act of rebellion.” Thanatos blinked.

“…Than, when you were kidnapped, I was the only one left in the House,” Zagreus said after what felt like eternity. “Even Hypnos got to go out and find you, but I’m stuck here and not even Cerberus was around since he was in the Temple of Styx! I don’t know what I was meant to do, not like you. At least your Work has _you_.”

Thanatos looked as if Charon had brained him over the head. “Zag, I… I didn’t know you were lonely-”

“I’m not!” Zagreus scoffed. “Everyone in my life is here.”

“Zag, I… it’s just a temporary thing,” Thanatos said. “We are making arrangements; I will have some time off. We can hang around like we always do.”

“If this is my life amongst the Chthonic gods, I want to go where you are in trouble, I want to do my part for the House! I want to live here with you!”

“Oh, Zagreus…I want to live with you too.”

The promise weighed heavily on his heart when Zagreus started trying to break out of the Underworld.

* * *

When the dust had settled, and Thanatos had just seen Lord Hades sink into the river Styx, Zagreus had apparently found the time and energy to build a snow-hut from the snow piled up around the domain.

“Than!” Zagreus waved, before tackling him. “Catch!”

Death gave a breathless grunt as a mass of laughter and flaming feet caught him off his guard and landed in feather-soft snow. At least here, death was no different from life.

Until Zagreus started trying to shove snow down his hood.

*

END


End file.
